Deaccessions at the Art Institute

So, following the lead ofThe Depaul University Art Museum let's give these rejected piecesone final exhibitionand contemplate whether each one is"good, bad, or ugly"

Fortunately,the museum has three otherpaintings by J. Alden Weir so the above will not be missed as sorely.Especially since it has probably been decadessince it was placed on display.(none of the others are on display now, either)

So why does a museum keep thingsthat hardly ever see the light of day?

Hopefully,some day,in this century or the next,the museum will begin to rotateit's display of Euro-American paintingsjust as it now rotates it'sdisplay of Japanese Ukiyo-e printsfour times a year.

But when that happens,the above fine portraitwill be sorely missed.

Louis McClellan Potter (1873 - 1912)

I'm less enthusiasticabout Cowboy/Indian/Frontier art in generaland this piece in particular.

Apparently, this piece is a resultof Potter's trip to Alaska,and I think it should be tradedto the Field Museum for some of theirbetter looking Asian art.

It's more like journalism,and less like poetry.

(though,let's face it.That's how many Americans thought about "Art" a hundred years ago.And who can prove them wrong?)

But on the other hand,the A.I.C. does have a gallery or twodevoted to this genre,and this would be a good pieceto rotate through it.(and it was the only Potter in their collection)

Bessie Potter Vonnoh (1872-1955)

A Chicago sculptorwho once assisted Loredo Taft,Bessie Potter later married thepainter, Robert Vonnoh.

I admit that mostly her work feelsheavy and depressing to me,and since the A.I.C. has three other pieces,I'm not going to miss it.(none of them are now on display,but I have seen them before)

But...

there's not many Chicago sculptorswho had a national reputation,and this piece feels lighterthan her others.

She belongs in a gallerythat rotates beaux-arts sculpture.

Pauline Palmer (1867-1938)

Here is the real tragedyof this round of deaccessions,because Pauline Palmer isone of the most famous Chicago paintersand the A.I.C. websitedoes not show that they possess any others.

Back when the Art Institute sponsored annual exhibits,Palmer won nearly all themajor awards, purchase prizes,and honorable mention citations.She was also elected the first female Presidentof the Chicago Society of Artists in 1918.

Dumping her is a slap in the faceto that part of Chicago's art historythat is currently consideredoutside the narrative of modernism,because it portrays pretty scenes and beautiful people.

and as these details showshe was quite a sensitive, playful painterwhose work still feels as fresh todayas it did a hundred years ago.

Her Wikipedia entrymentions that H.H. Kitsonthrew her out of his studiofor criticizing his equine anatomy,and good for him!

But, as the co-founder of Brookgreen Gardens,and the National Sculpture Society,she is one of the most important peoplein American sculpture, and something by hershould be shown from time to time.

(note: the subject matter hereis "Queen Isabella Going Through the Land of her People"which reminds us that the Huntingtonswere personal friends of Generalissimo Francoand a little bit to the right of Philip II)

Walter Ufer (1876-1936)

Walter remainsone of the most famousalumni of my art club,so I'm partial to himeven if I don't especially enjoyhis paintings.

Once again,the A.I.C. is dumpingits Chicago artists,and this is exactlythe wrong directionfor them to go.

The model looks rather bored,and this one looks like a studythat may have been done at the club.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942)

Another wealthy heiresswho took up sculpture,and also famous for foundingher own museum.

She took up the causeof wounded veteransand I think she did a pretty good job here

but a statue about pathetic peopleshould not be pathetic as well.

She seems to have anticipatedthe kind of artthat her museum would displayeighty years later

not all views are so bad,but she probably should have stuckwith small pieces like thisand stayed away from monumentsfor which she was not suited.

These things belongin an exhibit called"The school of Rodin"

Arthur Bowen Davies (1863-1928)

I have a strong affinityfor images of naked young womenpointlessly running arounddreamy, classical landscapes.

What's the harm in this male fantasy?

(though, apparently Davies took itone step further, as a bigamistwho established two families thatremained unknown to each other)

A beautiful designer.

His modern classical stylenever came to dominate paintingthe way that Maillol's stylewould dominate sculpture.

And today,it's hard to think of himas a cutting-edge modernistwho promoted the Armory Show of 1915

And now,I've learnedthat he may have beenthe most distinguished graduateof the Chicago Academy of Design that unfortunate institutionthat was hijacked by some wealthy board membersinto becoming the Art Institute of Chicago.

And I remember liking himway back when I was a pre-teenviewing the modern collectionof the Cincinnati Art Museum.

But, alasit seems his star is setting,as now the A.I.C. is not displayinga single one of his pieces,and they have just gotten rid ofthese five:

Summer and the Mother-HeartedEvening Among the RuinsLake and Island, Sierra NevadaDirge in SpringLeda and the Dioscuri.

But what's more upsettingis that the current regimeis so currently focusedon dumping their early 20th C.American art,which is, judging from these examples,one of their strengths.

The sum total earned at auctionfrom all these piecescame in less than $200,000.

So what's the point?

Giacometti's "Walking Man" recentlybrought $104 million at auction.

If the A.I.C. had gotten that muchfor their cast of it,they could purchased a thousandworks similar to the ones they just sold(at about $10,000 each)and then rotated them througha gallery several times every year.

(while producing and then displayingan exact plaster cast of their Giacometti)

Unfortunately,such a course of actionis utterly unthinkable in an institutional culturethat is devoted to the notionsof authenticityand progressive art history.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

A Dance in the Madhouse

I get the feeling that the prints,drawings, and watercolors were chosenfor maximum kick-butt impact,and that is what Americans tend to be good at.

And I love it.

But now that we've had a centuryto become used to the "Modern World",is it still worth all that aesthetic attention?

The large-scale technology driven commercialism and urbanization.

Isn't it all just -- "A Dance in the Madhouse" ?

"The artist as a young man was an intimate friend of the family of the superintendent to the great State Hospital in Columbus. For years the amusement hall was a gloomy old brown vault where on Thursday nights the patients indulged in "Round Dances" interspersed with two-steps and waltzes by the visitors. Each of the characters in this print represents a definite individual. Happy Jack boasted of being able to crack hickory nuts with his gums. Joe Peachmyer was a constant borrower of a nickel or a chew. The gentleman in the center had succeeded with a number of perpetual motion machines. The lady in the middle center assured the artist by looking at his palms that he was a direct descendant of Christ. This is the happier side of a vast world which a more considerate and wiser society would reduce to a not inconsiderable degree."-- George Bellows

***************

Just realized that the "Dance in the Madhouse"shown at the top was a charcoal drawing,while this lithograph, which was made five years laterand is much better known,was hanging next to it in the show.

How much has been changed!

And none of it for the better!

It seems that Bellows wantedhis lithograph to be more dramaticand sensational.

But I think it's just cruder and uglier.

****************

Here's some more highlights from the show:

Jose Orozco

Continuing the theme of madness,I love these little "Demons seated at a table" (1944)

The demons are ugly,but every color and line is beautiful.(which distinguishes this frommost other graphic demonology)

And I think I'm becoming a fanof Charles Demuth.This is his "Vaudeville Singer" of 1918.

Friday, February 05, 2010

A Good Trade?

(whereas the press office of the Art Institute of Chicago just told me that"We have not provided anyone with a list before.”)

But, also as noted before,the "Reason" given for each deaccessionis hardly explanatory.

(often "secondary example" is given as the reason,when indeed, there may be no "primary examples" of work by the same artist,or even in the same genre, in their collection.

So --- it's with some skepticismthat we should contemplate the connectionthey've presented between the five deaccesioned paintingsshown below, and the Horace Pippin shown above,which they tell us was purchased with subsequent income.

Ralph Brownell McGrew

To begin with,they have posted pictures of all fivedeaccessioned pieces in anobviously distorted view.

Just to make sure they look really, really bad ?

(Most of the other deaccessioned works on their siteare not presented this way.)

And second...

We might note that four of the five could be called'Western Art" (as in cowboys and Indians)and all of them were donated in 1976 by Harrison Eiteljorg,who ten years later would open his own museum of "American Indians and Western Art" in Indianapolis.

So.. it looks like Eiteljorg made a good decisionto stop giving his Western stuff to the I.M.A.and open his own, instead.

(BTW - he also donated a lot of African tribal artto the I.M.A., which so far, they've decided to keep)

James Reynolds

These don't look likegreat paintings to me.(but who can tell anythingfrom these distorted views)

Charles Dye

Perhaps I would rather see the single Pippin,but maybe that's just becauseI prefer that black man's sense of personal desparationto the vapid, commercial mythology of my white brothers.

But they've also tried to dump their Walter Ufer,which was also donated by Eiteljorg,and which I might well prefer to the dark, depressing Pippin.

Burt Proctor

Randall Davey

If it were my call,I may have have made the same switch.

But I'm still waiting for a special exhibitthat would inspire me to drive down I-65,and if they are trying to dump their Ufer and Paxton,I've not very enthusiastic about seeingwhat they have donewith their permanent collection again.

About Me

I live life dangerously by ignoring the advice of Chuang Tzu: "Your life has a limit but knowledge has none. If you use what is limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger". Badly spoiled by my wife, I spend mornings in sculpture studio, afternoons in record shop, evenings on the internet, weekends at the Palette and Chisel Academy and Art Institute of Chicago, and, the time spent in between, reading world literature. Am currently focused on the Middle East and South Asia.